Saturday, March 10, 2007

TORRANCE, Calif. — Toyota is offering discounts for its base Tundra pickup, a newly redesigned model that is built in Texas and has only been on sale for a matter of weeks. The discounts are intended to last a month and involve $250 coupons that dealers can use at their individual discretion to lure buyers of the regular-cab Tundra.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the discount coupons are good only on models of the entry-level Tundra in stock, and dealers are allowed to offer no more than four per sale for a total discount of $1,000.

The news is unusual mainly in that Toyota rarely incentivizes its vehicles, unlike U.S. manufacturers. The Tundra is intended to face off against Big Three truck offerings like the Chevrolet Silverado and the Ford F-Series. The base V6 regular-cab Tundra has a $22,290 base price. Both the Silverado and F-Series entry-level models start well under $19,000.

Initial incentives on the Tundra reportedly were launched at the beginning of February in the form of lower-interest loans, with the new discounts being added now to enhance the program.